


When Everything Else is Gone

by dreamscenes



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Fusion, Fluff and Angst, Forgetting, M/M, Memories, Street Photographer Mingyu, Street activist Wonwoo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2018-04-10
Packaged: 2018-09-09 14:26:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8894173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamscenes/pseuds/dreamscenes
Summary: Mingyu didn't want Wonwoo to forget completely. But he also respects his decision not to remember.





	1. Chapter 1

He was standing on the edge of Fall.

The mechanical roar of Kim Mingyu's Leica drowns in a sea of sound-- a bustling crowd of eager student protesters marching towards a makeshift platform in a small plaza, yelling insults towards whatever is keeping their young hopes and dreams endangered. Angry motorists violently honking at other drivers who were running their vehicles too slow, as they try to check out what the commotion is all about. The tall, young man roams around, taking photographs of the guerilla protest for the newspaper, Pledis Herald, a local publication where he started working recently. Being a passionate street photographer, he jumped right into the action and settled himself at a good spot near the stage, albeit shoving random strangers a bit too harsh to the side, to be able to take photos of the crowd's ringleaders. He was preoccupied with taking candid photos of the students who attended, despite it being a cold Thursday morning, when a voice as deep as midnight blue cuts through his thoughts.

"Today we gather here in our grave dissapointment to the system who has once sworn to protect our right to equal academic opportunities. Aren't we all sick and tired of the beurocracy?"

Mingyu felt everything between him and the bespectacled owner of the voice crashing down, in slow motion. The jeering and yelling of the students were fading to only the rapid beating of his heart, as it began to swell and pound violently inside its cage. He is transfixed with the sight of the man in front of him, the owner of the voice-- waif-thin body evident even with thick, seasonal clothes. Messy, raven hair under his beanie. Sharp, but kind eyes behind gold-rimmed, round glasses. Bright, toothy smile that made his lungs dissolve into love.

_I will never forget you, Jeon Wonwoo._

Wonwoo went to the same university as Mingyu, but was enrolled in Law School and was the head of the student body in his last year. He may look intimidating because of his stoic facade, but he is very kind and is always ready to help students with their struggles at school. If there's anyone who would know how to steel up during difficult times, it would be him because he worked so hard at school and his multiple part-time jobs to be able to finish his degree with flying colors. Mingyu has always fancied his duality, and admired his determination to achieve his dreams.

Mingyu came back to his senses as sounds of police sirens get louder and nearer. The air that was previously filled with zeal and conviction has started to stale into an air of fear, as the protesters and students start to run in all directions. The raven-haired ringleader urged his fellow leaders to run as well. In the midst of chaos, Mingyu clicked away as he found that photographer's golden opportunity and resolved to capture the mesmerizing disarray that has unfolded.

As Wonwoo ushers his colleagues away from the chaos, he managed to get shoved hard and fell on his hands and knees, while letting out a small yelp. His glasses fell somewhere, too, and so he squinted as he tried to find it. While Wonwoo looked after his members, he was left alone, a helpless mess trying to find his eyes on the ground.

The sound of the police cars drew nearer and nearer, and so Mingyu grabbed Wonwoo's arms to lift him up. When the leader is standing up, the taller man held his hand.

"Let's get out of here."

Wonwoo nodded in agreement even without knowing who just held his hand, and in that moment, they started running away from everything.

As a street photographer, Mingyu knows every vein and artery of the city, from the countless hours of walking and thriving in them and their art. He led Wonwoo into a very narrow alley in between a wine cafe and an Italian restaurant. The area reaks of alcohol and rotten food, but Mingyu knows it is a safe passage as not a lot of people know this cramped space is actually passable. A few turns here and there, and they emerge at a secluded park hidden behind a string of tall buildings. Mingyu saw a bench nearby, and led Wonwoo to it, so they can both sit down and rest from all that running. While they are sitting, both didn't notice that they still held hands. Their fingers laced with each other felt like a natural thing.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes, I am. Um, thank you for running with me."

Wonwoo gave Mingyu a shy smile and it lit up Mingyu's world. Wonwoo touched his cheek with his free hand as it felt the warmth of embarrassment spread in his face.

As Wonwoo brought his hand down, Mingyu noticed the scrapes in his palm, dirty and bloody against his pale skin. Mingyu then let go of their hands, took the wounded one, and gently wiped the dirt with a handlerchief, blowing onto it to relieve the sting. Wonwoo just smiled along with it, confused but weirdly contented. After tending the wounded skin, Mingyu wraped the handkerchief around Wonwoo's hand to protect it. He stared at the raven-haired man beside him and God, he is so beautiful and so fragile up close. It never dawned to Wonwoo that Mingyu is looking at him lovingly because he doesn't have his glasses, but felt Mingyu's hand brush against his. He wanted to hold it. His heart yearns for it. When they let go of each other's hands, breathing seems a little more difficult.

Wonwoo snaps from his daze as he realize the need to find his members and regroup. At the same time, they hear the sound of police cars again, as if to signal that their time together is over. Before Wonwoo could get up, Mingyu held his hand again and tugged it so he sits back down. The taller boy took something out from his bag, leaned closer and put something over his eyes-- his glasses.

After regaining his lost sight, the first thing that emerged from the blur is Mingyu's face. The tall man is exquisitely handsome, and is staring fondly at him. Wonwoo was overwhelmed and baffled by how his heart has been reacting to the man in front of him. He's usually not this trusting, especially to strangers. But somehow this man has his magic on him, and he felt safe.

The sirens don't seem to get tired, though. Wonwoo really has to go now. They both say goodbyes but before Wonwoo turns around to run, he asked for Mingyu's name.

"I'm Wonwoo, what's your name?"

Mingyu's heart could have exploded at that moment, when Wonwoo askes for his name.

"Mingyu."

He can only muster his name softly. As if God is playing with them, Wonwoo didn't catch his name as it was drowned by the approaching sirens. With trembling hands, Mingyu takes one last photo of Wonwoo, and a silent prayer that the other will not forget the moment they had together.

Wonwoo runs smiling, feeling the ghost of Mingyu's hand on his.

The first snow of the year falls.

And with it, Mingyu's tears.

 

 

**1 year ago...**

"Is this recording now, Doctor? Ok. Uh, my name is Jeon Wonwoo... and I am here in Lacuna to undergo the memory erasure procedure and irrevoacbly remove all the memories I have with my former boyfriend..."

Wonwoo choked in words but then managed to let out a heavy sigh.

"Ok, Wonwoo, what's his name?"

 

"Kim Mingyu."


	2. Periwinkle Skies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I added a chapter after a year. I didn't intend to add one initially but I wanted Wonwoo to suffer as well hence the new chapter. I drunk-typed this at 2AM so sorry for any grammar/construction errors or if this is total crap. :)

12:37AM. Wonwoo had been staring at the bright display of his laptop for at least 20 minutes but what felt like an eternity. He doesn't know how to start.

Trying to look for a person whom he doesn't know the name of is no easy task, but he felt that finding and thanking this person properly is something that he needs to do as a decent human being. Well, on top of making sure that the person he's with that day isn't one of those hyper-realistic dreams he'd been getting since the "accident"-- for the way he held Wonwoo's hand felt scarily familiar. How gentle yet secure it was when they held on to each other as they ran away from the chaos Wonwoo pretty much started. A hand whose warmth swirled around the divisions of his icy fingers, melting away his doubts and fears. A stranger's hand so seemingly familiar that the grooves and valleys of the man's hand fits his own like puzzle pieces. 

Wonwoo was never a believer of "Infatuation at first sight" as this "concept" go against all principles he stood by. He is a law student, afterall. He prides himself over the fact that he is so damn calculated in all aspects of his life, and not swayed by unexplained emotions easily. He doesn't do something without thinking about it manifold times until he is sure that he has the upper hand in telling the clockwork of people's predictabilities (and in a sense, his own). In addition, he also believes he's not a person who would go after physical traits-- he'd always reason out that he have enough handsome slobs in his life right now (that being his friends) and he would rather date someone kind. And clean. At one point, he had a little argument with his best friend Junhui about that matter, after the latter drunk confessed to him that he met some phycisist at a bar and fell absolutely in love at first encounter and after a few days his now-boyfriend, Jeonghan, is pretty much a permanent resident of the 2 bedroom flat they're living in. Nonetheless, he acknowledges that life also thrives on unlikely circumstances and chances that can't be rationalized, considering he is still alive after that fateful car accident a year ago that cost him part of his memories and a loved one's life. 

"Ugh, Won. The things you do to find a glorified crush."

The only thing he knows is that he is an official photographer of perhaps a publication, when he caught a glimpse of his Press ID, and that he uses an analog camera to take photos so he started typing keywords while uttering a silent prayer that Google gives him relevant results (and that the mystery person hopefully has already processed and uploaded the photos).

Several keywords and search results later, he stumbled upon a black and white photo of a man being dragged away by a policeman, a backdrop of a scene he's well-acquainted with. Although black and white, he can see clearly the anguish on the man's face and at the back if his head he can hear the wailing of police sirens, drowning the photographer's voice as he bid him farewell. For some reason remembering the kind stranger's face as he say goodbye made Wonwoo's heart clench, but he immediately shook the blunt pain of his heart off to focus on his task. 

He clicked on the photo to go to the website it was uploaded to and he was directed to Pledis Herald, a local broadsheet publication he knows as one of his friends, Minghao, works there as a proofreader. He continued to find more photos of the demonstration, and he painstakingly scrutinized every single one of them to find any clue as to the identity of the photographer. One photo has been credited to a certain Kim Gyu.

"Kim Gyu."

Wonwoo tried to recall how the man's lips moved as he said his name before they parted. He may not have heard what he said, but he was able to follow the movement of his mouth as he slighly pouted to say the last sylable of his name.

"Kim Gyu. Somehow, it..."

 

Wonwoo, in desperation wanted to believe that this is his person's name, so he Googled photos of this "Kim Gyu." Most of the photo results are for a couple of B-rate actresses, so he added "photographer" in the filters to narrow down his search results. One last attempt he said, as more than anything, he now feels silly trying to find someone he may not be meeting again. Trying to hold on to a fleeting memory.

 

And he found him.

 

He is smiling in the photo, arms wide open up in the air and eyes closed, basking under the somber gold and periwinkle hues of the distant sunset.

 

Kim Gyu's beauty is as overwhelming as the vastness of the sky he's trying to reach out to.

 

And Wonwoo can only look in awe and adoration.

 

He willed himself to snap out of the daze, and he did. But he still wanted to see more of him, so he continued by clicking on the photo, which led him to Gyu's online journal. The last entry was written just a few hours ago.

 

"He is still very beautiful-- I've never seen him so at peace. I look into his eyes and I see a boy who is free of doubt. 

He chose to no longer remember. 

But is it selfish of me to keep our memories together for myself? God make it a little easier to accept because I never want to forget."

 

 

Under the text is a scanned polaroid of 2 hands that are losely entwined. One hand looks big peeping out of a teal knitted sleeve bearing similiar snow patterns as one of Wonwoo's holiday sweaters. Although only having met the stranger once, he thinks he knows Gyu's hand when he sees it and reckons that maybe the hand belongs to Gyu, placed on top of another person's hand perched on Gyu's legs. The other hand looked so white and delicate under Gyu's golden skin. On the other person's wrist is a red string bracelet of sorts.

 

A wave of anxiety washed over Wonwoo upon realization that he has been wearing the same red bracelet for many years now. Why is he wearing the same bracelet? Is this coincidence? He ran to his closet to grab his favorite tealsweater which is 2 sizes too big for him and tried to recall how he even got it. He doesn't remember but Jun said they bought it together at a thrift store but he may have forgotten after the accident. There are too many small things he doesn't remember. He questions where the other Joy Division LPs went if he was even such a neat freak, he also questioned why he has a queen size bed when he is waif thin and doesn't move around a lot in bed. He started to question why Gyu looked at him so lovingly as he wipes his bloody hand, and why Gyu's hand feels like home. He asks why he feels so confused and hurt, and why he feels angry and delusional. Are his friends hiding things from him? Or is he the one conjuring up things? Who is Kim Gyu?

 

"Who the fuck are you and why do you do this to me??"

 

With trembling hands, Wonwoo dialed a friend's number because paranoia has started to creep through his bones and he can no longer think properly. He needs answers to his questions, and he needs it now.

 

"Wonwoo?"

"Minghao? May I-- ask y-you something?"

"Won... are you ok?"

"No, I-- I'm ok I just have questions. Will you promise me that you will tell me the truth?"

"I never lie to you. Is there something wrong?" 

"Hao... before I forgot... do I know s-someone named... Gyu?"

"G-gyu...?"

"Yeah. K-Kim Gyu?"

"I don't think I..."

"I believe he works at Pledis Herald as well?"

"Hyung... did you meet him? Did he tell you something?"

"He helped me escape during the demonstration."

"Is that it?"

"Do I need to know anything else?"

"N-no he... Mi-- I mean Gyu works in the company but he's a weirdo so we don't really talk an I don't see him around a lot."

"Have we met before, by any chance?"

Minghao offered a silent prayer to heaven. 

"I believe you never met before."

"I see, thanks. Goodnight, Minghao. Let's hang out on Saturday."

"Goodnight, hyung. I'll text you."

 

 

 

 

[4 years ago]

 

"Gyu... turn off the light and cuddle me."

"What did you just call me?"

"Gyu. Do you prefer Kim Imbecile?"

"No but say it again."

"Kim Imbe--"

"Noooo..."

"Gyu."

"Again."

"Gyu."

 

"I love you, Won."

"I love you too, sweetheart."

**Author's Note:**

> Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind AU


End file.
